PORT HURON, Mich. – A St. Clair County 11-month-old is one of three Michigan children included in the CDC’s acute hepatitis investigation. It’s that mysterious liver disease in children first identified in the U.K. and is now found in children across Europe and the U.S.
Kathleen and Blake Rowell said their youngest Finn went from being his regular, bubbly, active self to the opposite in hours.
His mom said he was sleeping a lot more and throwing up.
“His eyes kept darting back and forth,” said Kathleen Rowell. “Like he couldn’t focus on one thing. And I was like, ‘Okay, that’s weird.’ And then, a few hours later is when he started throwing up the blood. All of a sudden, it got to the point where we could not wake him up at all. And he started throwing up something brown.”
Read: CDC investigating mysterious hepatitis cases in children; 2 possible cases in Michigan
The nightmare didn’t end there; on May 17, the couple took Finn to the emergency room, where doctors ran tests.
“They were like, ‘So your son has possible liver failure,’” Kathleen Rowell said. ‘”His kidneys are shutting down, and we’re airlifting him to Children’s Hospital because he has internal bleeding somewhere, and he was throwing up the old blood.’”
Finn was treated and went home on May 25. He is now back to the happy and healthy baby he was before this diagnosis. Finn’s parents said he will check in with the doctors soon.
Local 4′s Dr. Frank McGeorge said there’s still so much to learn about the sickness but said it’s not the same as Hepatitis A or B.
“Hepatitis simply implies inflammation of the liver,” said McGeorge. “It can be caused by a variety of different things.”
McGeorge said because researchers haven’t found a cause, there is no way for parents to know how to prevent their children from getting this acute hepatitis.
“At this point, fortunately, these cases are extremely rare, so there isn’t cause for alarm,” McGeorge said. “The main issue is that if your child is becoming more ill, and especially if you notice any yellowing of their skin, yellowing in the whites of their eyes, or darkening of their urine, you should have them seen by their doctor.”
Kathleen Rowell had one piece of advice for parents.
“Don’t ignore that gut instinct because that was the only thing that got me to the hospital in time to get him treated,” Kathleen Rowell said.